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J.A.BRO's ARTIST COLORED DOLL, TYPE 8, ©1990, "ABORIGINAL TODDLER-GIRL"
MATERIAL: Liquid wood, head, limbs, hand-painted. © J.A.BRO. BODY: Cotton-stretch, colored, 5 joints, natural body shape (sexed as a girl), navel and buttock. © J.A.BRO. WIG: Hand-knotted human hair. Design © J.A.BRO. CLOTHES: Fashion design © J.A.BRO. Silkscreen on fabric made by the Aboriginal artist Bronwyn Bancroft 1987 ©. SIZE: Ca. 63cm. RECOMMENDED EDITION I: Original artist doll in liquid wood, all handmade and hand-painted, certificate, limited edition. RECOMMENDED EDITION II: Other materials like hard and soft vinyl, porcelain, bronze. |
"FOREWORD""Special note: Aboriginal Doll Work-Story"Some impressions and interpretations by the artist J.A.BRO. © about her own created lifelike Aboriginal doll made of "liquid wood":
As a rational thinking person I prefer not to BELIEVE IN THINGS alone, but try to KNOW all about
them. Because of this I was occupied over years with religion, classic and modern psychoanalysis,
the science about brain surgery, the science of return from death to life, telepathy,
paranormality. I know, that most native people have a better understanding and feeling for the
supernatural phenomena of our world within us and around. For instance, some of the Australian
Aborigines are very good in telepathy, also in healing of some illnesses where the conservative,
academic medicine has failed. Their people are believing that those of them, with the gift of
understanding of supernatural phenomena, are possessing magical powers. That can be absolutely
possible, but, I personally, prefer in all things of life, not only to believe, but to have
provable facts to deal with!
So, I am very interested in the explanations and facts of the science of magical phenomena, see the classic psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who described this phenomenon in one of his books, titled (in German): "TOTEM & TABU" as well as other modern scientists in some European Eastern-Block countries and in the USA, where phenomena are taught at a few universities, as a subject of science, which normally has nothing to do with "magical power and mysterious things" but only with provable facts, described in the book titled (in German): "PSI." The academic science discovered too, that humans are unable to use the given 100% capacity of their brain power, but only around 30%! So it is absolutely wrong to say: What I can't see, hear, or taste, is just not existent. With the capacity of our unused 70% of brain power, we probably will be able in the future to see behind things in and around us and the, yet, supernatural and super-sensory irrealities become so real, like our daily bread and milk. Then, we will be able to KNOW and not only to BELIEVE!  But
at present, we are still doomed to TRY to understand what is really going on, which not necessarily
means, that we are always successful by it! BE OR NOT TO BE - that's at last not THE question
because it doesn't matter to be physically, mentally, spiritually, or intellectually alive or dead
- this planet will be rotating, maybe eternally - around the sun without us, with other words:
We are nothing, but only dust - and at this point of view, the religious believing, in a sense of life and death, is STARTING! This foreword was necessary, for better understanding of my special relationship to my Aboriginal toddler-girl artwork. Because, I don't see only a doll in it, but a spiritual totem of a human race, called Aboriginal. For myself, as a professional artist, it is no problem to create faces in clay resp. gypsum, or other materials. It is for me, one of the easiest businesses of artistic expressions. In the past, I haven't had any problems with portrait making, or doll-making, by reflecting different human races of our World. At the age of only 14 years young, I created life-size in clay, without any prior knowledge or teachings, my very first portrait of a famous artist: The composer Richard Wagner. The portrait still is available, cast in gypsum, and shown in my first PR film, 30 minutes, titled: " JABRO About JABRO ", 1978-1982, J.A.BRO ©, and too shown on our Web site, about my artwork at this address: www.Jabro-Art.com, section "JABRO's Sculptures" .  But
the first time in my life, I was struggling, to create a face which I can accept from its outfit
and from its spiritual expression. Parallel to this work, I had to care for my own children and had
to perform the daily, very frustrating household duties. But each day, I reserved 3 to 4 hours, to
work in wax on this Aboriginal portrait. Nearly every day, over around 13 weeks, I discarded my
daily work again and again, but certainly I didn't want to give up. The conservative and
traditional Western art world, I was raised in, has many and different impressions of the concept
"Beauty" but all, more or less, seen from only one point of view. Now, I was faced with another
kind of beauty-understanding and I learned, step by step, in a subjective way, what beauty really
means. But still, I had problems, to give my artwork a soul. I also had difficulties, to get
baby-and toddler photos from Aboriginal children, out of books and magazines. I once asked in SA an
Aboriginal mother, to photograph her 6 pretty black skinned & blond-haired children, but she
denied me the favor. A probable explanation for this reluctance, in front of a camera, is, that
Aborigines maybe believe, the photographing of their babies and toddlers will bring them bad luck.
 Because
of this, I could utilize - for doing my job properly - only a few, poor quality photo-prints from
children aged between 6 - 14 years (see the photo-collage on right), but no toddler-photos. The
picture on the photo-collage, with the Aboriginal toddler-boy and me, was taken in 1990, around ten
weeks later, after having finished my Aboriginal toddler-portrait. So, this portrait is a
conglomerate, of each of these older Aboriginal children, portrayed on poor quality prints. I was
very successful, in bringing the characteristic of each child in my artwork, also to make my
artwork "younger", to a toddler face. But where was still the spirit, or soul of my artwork? I
knew, I had not yet developed the right relationship with it and was very much unhappy about it.
After studying, again and again, for 1001 times, the faces of the children on the few prints, I
suddenly recognized the full life in the eyes of the sweet little girl, aged ca. 8 years (see photo
collage page 2, bottom left) and I was wondering, why I haven't seen before the spirit and magic
power in it. Maybe I have had a mental block and I was blind because of this, but maybe there was
much more behind the scene and behind my intellectual, rational understanding. Who ever knows? But
from this moment on, I knew, that the spirit/soul was coming into my artwork. After finishing the
Aboriginal TOTEM-TODDLER GIRL-DOLL, for the second time, I had an unusual experience with this
artwork: I had been alone with it in the workroom, the sunset was sending its last sun rays through
the window (I had not yet switched on the electric light), the doll was lying in my right arm,
heavy and tall like a real child of ca. 3 months and I looked at her, still with a bit of
uncertainty, and - suddenly - her dark eyes were lighting up full with life. At the same moment, I
felt, for a fraction of a second, an instant scare throughout my body. But I didn't allow my
feelings to prevail, because I was aware that there was a plausible explanation:
 It just happened,
that the last sun rays of the day were horizontally shining through the window. And accidentally,
the eyes of my toddler girl-doll, they had just received the final high-gloss lacquer finish,
warmly reflected them. Indeed, a very easy and comprehensive explanation, which hardly gives room
for any other thoughts, such as irrational phenomena and other things like that. Just an
accidental, but precisely timed coincidence, or? Then I showed the toddler-doll to my family, which
liked her very much, with a deep sigh of relief, that mum and wife would from now on be relaxed
again, after around 4 relatively stressful months for the whole family. Finally, I have had with
this artwork a third unusual experience: When I took one, of the many snapshots, of my Aboriginal
"Totem-Toddlergirl-Doll", for documentation, I indeed realized the highlight in the middle of her
forehead and immediately thought to myself: ......That is, exactly, what I don't want in portrait
photography. But, contrary to my established practice, I nevertheless shot the photo and selected
it, as my favourite, see photo # 5. (Wo-)mankind acknowledges, that the light, in the middle of the
forehead, symbolizes, in most of the high cultures of the past, the site of supernatural spirits.
But at that moment I haven't thought about things like that, only intending to make ordinary photos
of that doll, for documentation only, certainly without any mystical background and interpretation.
But it turned out the other way - why? And what enabled me, to photograph her, in a way, that she
expresses YOUTH and AGE, symbolizing in, only, one photo expression also INNOCENCE and
MATURITY/WISDOM ? Therefore, my "Totem-Toddlergirl-Doll" has many faces under different light
conditions. (The photo sequences of it have been made by me on the same day, same time and place,
but in full sunlight, half-shade, full shade and indirect light.)
If you don't mind, have a look for yourself:
Be happy with your "new kid" and have a nice day. May God bless you. Yours sincerely, J.A.BRO.
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And at one of my favorite
photos of this sequence, the TOTEM-DOLL looks like a wise sorceress fulfilled with supernatural
power - just look at her talking face, the highlight in the middle of her forehead, the special
gleaming and sparkling of her eyes and the half-open mouth that may want to tell you something very
important (see # 5).